ON ACCIDENTS. 143 



' The next material point,' he says, ' to be considered, 

 is the mode of harnessing the horses and attaching them 

 to the carriage. It was a prudent custom of our ancestors 

 to have the harness constructed with breechines ; but 

 our modern whipcord dandies hold them in the greatest 

 contempt, and principally because they do not look natty ; 

 thus pitting their ideas of a proper appearance in their 

 " set out" against the lives and limbs of the passengers. 

 Now if these modern Jehus hazarded no other necks but 

 their own, the affair might be left to the decision of their 

 own taste and judgment, without the necessity of inter- 

 ference from any other quarter. But as this is not the 

 case, I conceive that every person who is obliged to trust 

 his carcase to the wisdom and forethought of these 

 worthies, has a right to remonstrate, or at least, to offer 

 his opinion. To think of doing so in person would, how- 

 ever, be a vain attempt. For any passenger who has 

 ever ridden on the box of a stage-coach (except Coachce 

 knows him to be a member of the Four-in-Hand Club, or 

 a young Oxonian or Cantab,) must have experienced 

 the contemptuous silence with which any observations 

 he might make on the noble art of driving are generally 

 received ; for it is inconceivable with what importance 

 these sapient gentlemen carry themselves in the pursuit 

 of their calling. The danger arising from the want of 

 breechings to the harness, exists principally while the 

 carriage is descending a hill ; for without them, the whole 

 power of resistance to the weight of the carriage rests 

 on the wheel horse's withers, thus pulling him down- 

 wards towards the ground, to the great risk of his falling ; 



